How Good Are Packers at These Four Positions That Define Today’s NFL?

Once upon a time, pro football was built through the ground game. Every yard was earned the hard way. Coaches would routinely discuss the need to establish their running games before opening up their pass games.

Now, things are different. Rule changes have made throwing the ball easier than ever and, as a result, teams want to throw it, throw it and throw it some more.

The Green Bay Packers have been ahead of that curve. They prioritize their passing game on offense and slowing down opposing pass games with their roster-building strategies. Everything they do in Green Bay is centered on the quarterback position. That’s a big reason they’ve had uninterrupted success at that position since Brett Favre took over for Don Majkowski.

The premier positions in modern football are based around the quarterback, as well.

Passer, pass rusher, pass defender and pass blocker.

Most championship teams are well stocked in those four categories.

In Green Bay, there are questions that follow. Here’s a look at each category, and ultimately why I’m selling the Packers’ chances as a true title contender in 2026.

Quarterback

At quarterback, there aren’t any big-picture questions surrounding Jordan Love. He’s proven himself to be a worthy successor to Aaron Rodgers. The Packers have a chance to win every week that he is healthy and under center.

Love was putting together arguably his best season last year before he suffered a concussion in a late-season game at Chicago.

The only question that surrounds Love at this point is if he can master the details. Wins and losses are not a quarterback stat, but that is how quarterbacks are judged. Whether that’s fair or not doesn’t really matter because it is a reality.

Regardless, the only question left for Love is whether he can be the rising tide to lift all ships around him. When everything else around him is going wrong, it’s up to him to make things right. That’s the burden of being a franchise quarterback.

Still, the Packers are in good hands with Love.

Pass Rusher

Green Bay’s pass rush has one giant caveat attached to it. Micah Parsons will return to the lineup as the superstar that he proved himself to be in Green Bay a season ago?

Apart from Parsons, what else does Green Bay have? A lot of question marks. Devonte Wyatt has proven to be a solid contributor when he has stayed on the field, but that’s a tough position to stay healthy. Javon Hargrave is hoping to add some punch to Green Bay’s rush at age 33.

On the edge, the Packers are still waiting for Lukas Van Ness to have his breakout season. Green Bay’s Opening Day edge rushers of Van Ness, Brenton Cox, Barryn Sorrell and rookie Dani Dennis-Sutton have combined for 15 sacks in their careers, including four last year.

Had Parsons not been injured in a December matchup against the Broncos, he may have surpassed that by himself.

The pass rush was often too reliant on Parsons to make a play. As great as Parsons is, asking him to supply all of the pass rush is a recipe for failure. That’s true whether he’s coming off an injury or not. The Packers need someone to emerge at this position. If they’re going to win a championship, they may need more than one.

Pass Defender

The Packers are in pretty good shape in terms of throwing the ball and rushing the passer. Even if the Packers just have Parsons as a reliable rusher at some point, that’s a great start.

Pass defender? There are a lot of questions that need to be answered.

Their safety trio is as good as any in the NFL with Xavier McKinney, Javon Bullard and Evan Williams helping anchor their defense.

Cornerback? It was a problem to finish the 2025 season, and it remains a major question mark entering the 2026 season.

Green Bay’s likely to start their second-round pick, Brandon Cisse. Cisse had a good camp and certainly earned that opportunity. He’s also a rookie, and asking a rookie to be the team’s top corner on a championship contender can be tenuous at best.

Even if Cisse is awesome, there are questions on who is across from him. Keisean Nixon appears to be the favorite to start there, but he rotated with three other players throughout the middle portion of training camp.

Carrington Valentine was benched twice in a game last year. Benjamin St-Juste is a bit of a journeyman.

How much confidence does that cornerback group inspire against Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and Jauan Jennings for the Week 1 game against the Vikings? CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens against the Cowboys in October? Puka Nacua and Davante Adams against the Rams in November?

Almost every team on the schedule has at least one really good receiver. If Cisse is good early, that can solve a lot of problems, but relying on a rookie is a risky game to play.

Pass Blocker

The Packers finished last season with questions on the offensive line and at cornerback. Mere days before their 2026 season opens, they have questions at offensive line and cornerback.

The “stable” pieces of the offensive line are players at new positions.

Jordan Morgan is the left tackle. That’s his natural position. He’s also only started one game there in the NFL. Morgan had an excellent camp, and everyone around him is saying all of the right things about how he’s ready for this challenge.

It’s also true he’s never performed well for an extended period in the NFL. The Packers think he will be good, but that’s only a thought at this point.

The other piece of stability up front is Sean Rhyan, who will be starting his ninth game at center at U.S. Bank Stadium next week. Rhyan played better at center than he did at guard, but the Packers have seemingly always found a way to try to replace Rhyan whenever he’s been in position to take hold of a position. It’s unlikely they’d do that to a center, but it remains to be seen.

The rest of the offensive line is one big question mark.

Aaron Banks and Zach Bako-Bewele are supposed to be fixtures at left guard and right tackle. Both players are still uncertain if they’ll be able to play in a full game. That means the Packers may have to rotate players throughout a game. It also means they may not be able to rely on them at all.

The offense is much better with Bako-Bewele on the field. Banks was supposed to be one of their core pieces when the Packers signed him as a free agent a season ago. It has not worked out at this point.

At right guard, Jacob Monk won the job at right guard after second-round pick Anthony Belton was demoted to be the team’s swing tackle.

Monk has started one game in his NFL career, and it was at center in last year’s meaningless regular-season finale. There’s little doubt that Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores has a big red circle on Monk going into his debut as an NFL starter.

Could the aforementioned players prove to be better than the group that finished the 2025 season? Sure.

There just is not a lot of stability or proof at this point that any of those players are either healthy or effective.

If there’s a position group that you can likely point to as the one that will sink Green Bay’s ship in 2026, it’s the offensive line.

From the draft to free agency and contract extensions to trades, it's been a wild ride to get to the Packers' 53-man roster that will hop on a plane for Week 1 at the Vikings.

Here's our grade of all 2⃣6⃣ major transactions. ⬇️https://t.co/GxYps8v6r0
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) September 5, 2026

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